Philippines

The Philippines is a sovereign island country in the Pacific Ocean, consisting of 7,641 islands. Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao are the main islands, and its location in the Ring of Fire makes it a disaster center for hurricanes and earthquakes, but it also enjoys great biodiversity. With a population of 100,000,000, the islands have the 12th largest population in the world, with 12,000,000 Filipinos living overseas in one of the largest diasporas in the world.

Colonial history
The Philippines were discovered by explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, beginning the Spanish Empire's colonization of the islands. They were named for King Philip II of Spain, and in 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was made the first Governor of the Spanish East Indies, establishing the city of Cebu. For 300 years, the Philippines were ruled by Spain, which forced its denizens to convert to Catholicism and to adopt Spanish names for census purposes, and the Filipino people almost lost their culture. However, the Sultanate of Sulu in the Sulu archipelago to the south flourished, and the Moros of Mindanao fought against Spanish rule. In 1898, a major uprising by Filipino nationalists, aided by the United States during the Spanish-American War, succeeded in evicting the Spanish, but the Filipinos found themselves under American rule shortly afterwards. From 1898 to 1912, the Filipinos waged a war of resistance against the imperialist Americans and Governor William Howard Taft, who said that it was America's goal to give education to their "little brown brothers". The Philippine-American War was a defeat for the Filipinos, but the American government later decided to give the Philippines self-rule on 24 March 1934. Manuel Quezon served as the President, and the Philippines was a protectorate of America, with US Army forces and US Navy fleets being stationed in the islands as their base in the Pacific. Japan decided to invade the Philippines in 1941 at the start of the Pacific War in order to cripple the USA's ability to defend the Pacific, and by early 1942 the islands were subjugated. Resistance movements were active until 1945, when the United States returned to the Philippines with several fleets and armies, with General Douglas MacArthur fulfilling his promise to return. The Philippines were liberated at the end of the war when the Japanese surrender forced Tomoyuki Yamashita to capitulate, and on 4 July 1946 the Philippines was given its independence as a sovereign island nation.

Independence
The Philippines, like many other decolonized nations after World War II, was prone to a dictator taking power. In 1965, Senator Ferdinand Marcos was elected President of the Philippines, with his anti-communist stance making him a popular choice for both the Filipino people and the Western Bloc nations like the United States. However, this led to the Maoist New People's Army rebelling against the government, and Muslim Moros also rose in rebellion to secure their own homeland in the southern Philippines. Marcos sent 2,061 Filipino troops to fight in the Vietnam War with the Free World Military Forces against North Vietnam and the communist Viet Cong guerrillas, and in 1972 he declared martial law in his country, becoming a strong anti-communist dictator. Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos embezzled money and lived a luxurious lifestyle while poverty rose, and they killed political opponents like Benigno Aquino, Jr..

In 1986, Aquino's wife Corazon Aquino led the People Power Revolution against Marcos, overthrowing him and establishing a democratic society. The dictatorship of Marcos was overthrown, and Marcos went into exile. In 1996, Aquino's successor Fidel V. Ramos made peace with the Moros, but an economic crisis hit the next year; Ramos' successor Joseph Estrada fixed the economic crisis, but in 2000 he declared war on the Moros and resumed the conflict. The country continued to go through crises such as the Dos Palmas kidnappings and more deadly terrorist attacks by Moro separatist groups like the MILF, MNLF, and Abu Sayyaf, and the Maguindanao Massacre of 2009 left 34 journalists dead, leading to the Philippines being second only to Iraq in terms of the country most dangerous for journalists. In the 2010s, the government of the Philippines decided to increase the role of the US in its policy after the costly Mamasapano clash, and they planned to increase the US military presence in their country to help with security.

Culture
The Philippines are spread out across thousands of islands, and there are therefore many different cultural groups. 28.1% are Tagalogs, 13.1% Cebuanos, 9% Ilocanos, 7.5% Visayans, 7.5% Hiligaynons, 6% Bikols, 3.4% Warays, and 25.3% others, including Moros (Tausugs, Maranao, Yakan, and other Muslim groups). 82.9% of the population is Catholic, 10% Protestant, 5% Muslim, and 2.1% other, including atheists, Buddhists, and animists. English and Filipino are the two official languages of the islands, although English is only spoken in the cities; townspeople speak the many Filipino languages.